Can iPhone 4S connect to D.C.?

The rollout of Apple’s iPhone 4S on Tuesday will create a new wave of gadget envy for federal employees — and a new round of headaches for federal agencies.

The issues: security and cost.

Story Continued Below

Every advance in consumer electronics — whether it’s the iPad, the Droid or the latest iPhone — leaves government employees arguing that they could do more if they just had their hands on the best equipment. But Washington can’t keep up; the government is too big; the bureaucracy is too slow and the stakes are too high.

“This is a very new and fluid technology sector, and everyone is thinking about what their mobile-device strategy ought to be,” said Casey Coleman, chief information officer for the General Services Administration. “I doubt too many of them think they’ve got it figured out so far.”

GSA is one of the so-called early adopters helping drive the new mobile-device push across the federal government. The agency boasts that more than 100 tablets and roughly 50 iPhones and Android smartphones are hooked up to its network.

Agencies, once reliant on BlackBerrys and laptops, are increasingly experimenting with an array of devices that promise to inject a technological edge into everything from government audits to reconnaissance on the battlefield.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to equip doctors with tablet computers to easily access health records. The Army is testing a variety of tablets and smartphones to see which stand up to the rigors of the battlefield. And the U.S. Marshals Service is testing iPads, iPhones and Android-based devices to help hunt down bad guys, according to analysts.

Additionally, the Air Force and the Department of the Interior have launched pilot programs, and the State Department is also eyeing the technology.

For federal agencies, it’s the first time they’ve had to secure mobile devices other than BlackBerrys and laptops to plug into their respective networks. That can raise big questions for IT departments, but the momentum toward mobility is strong, said Lauren Jones, a senior principal analyst at government contract consulting firm Deltek.

A younger, more technologically savvy crop of federal workers are demanding agencies get up to speed with the hottest gadgets they’re accustomed to using.

The devices have also benefited from strong administration support.

President Barack Obama has made no secret his affinity for tech gadgets, including Apple’s product line. The White House in August launched a pilot program for the Executive Office of the President to allow staffers to access their employee email accounts on their iPads and iPhones through a secure connection.

On Monday, Obama boasted to ABC News host George Stephanopoulos in an interview that he got his iPad 2 from Apple founder Steve Jobs a little earlier than most Americans. “It was cool. I got it directly from him,” Obama said.

Earlier this year, former federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra suggested that the government give federal workers a $2,000 subsidy to help them buy mobile devices. It’s a suggestion that will likely go unheeded in the current economic environment in Washington, in which the congressional supercommittee is looking to cut the national deficit and no party is likely to want to champion the cause of equipping federal workers with iPhones.

The combined voices of Obama and Kundra helped light the fire of federal adoption of Silicon Valley’s latest tools. “If those two in particular and other champions of change had not come in and begun to promote innovation, we wouldn’t be even at this juncture,” Jones said. “This is going to be an evolving, interesting market to watch.”

That’s not to say agencies are sprinting to try out the new tech gadgets. Some agencies are hesitant to take the plunge because of concerns over cybersecurity, as government computers increasingly become the target of hackers. A Government Accountability Office report issued Monday found that attempts to hack into federal computers and steal government data have risen more than 650 percent over the past five years.